The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency is a non-profit, co-operative agency. It provides electricity to communities like Naperville through collective ownership of power sources. It receives about 70% of its electricity from coal.
Staci Wilson is the vice president of government affairs and member services at the agency. She says that this model has saved residents money and protected them from volatile energy prices.
“By owning resources," she said, "we are able to control our costs and protect our cities from having to be out on the market where where’s a lot of volatility. Our budget has been flat and under budget for the last ten years.”
She says the agency is looking to sign onto more renewable energy projects. These contract extensions are a major piece of the puzzle.
“As our thermal resources are, as they expire in the future," Wilson said, "we would want to be replacing them with new renewable or carbon free resources. We need these extensions to be able to procure and to position our portfolio into the future.”
Many communities have already agreed to extend their contracts. Wilson says with that commitment, the agency was able to secure a 150-megawatt solar project set to provide power in the next two years.
Naperville’s contract with the agency is set to expire by 2035. The extension would move that to 2055.
Environmental advocates say that extending the contract signs the city up for more years of coal power, and that the energy market is too volatile for a long-term agreement.
Indivisible Naperville is holding a “say no to coal” rally on Tuesday before the meeting.
The agenda to Naperville's city council meeting is here.
You can find IMEA’s sustainability statement, which includes a commitment to carbon-zero by 2050, here.
You can also read more about activists' opposition to IMEA's contract on the "Say No to Coal" website, linked here.